Anime Boston, the largest anime convention in New England, has announced its guest lineup for their March 25 – 27 show! Coming all the way from Japan are Director Kyohei Ishiguro, Character Designer Yukiko Aikei, Producer Masao Maruyama, and Voice actors Toshio Furukawa and Shino Kakinuma. Their work encompasses many of the most popular anime movies and television shows including Mobile Suit Gundam, Sailor Moon, Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball Z, Death Note, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, and many more. This a rare opportunity for North American fans to meet these artists as they make few US appearances, some are even making the trip for the first time!

Also appearing are several of the voice actors who dub Japanese anime into English including Tony Oliver (Robotech, Lupin the III), Eric Vale (Dragon Ball Z, One Piece), Carrie Keranen (Your lie in April, Kill la Kill), Erica Lindbeck (The Seven Deadly Sins, Your lie in April), Max Mittelman (Transformers: Rescue Bots, The Seven Deadly Sins) Patrick Seitz (Naruto: Shippûden, Sailor Moon Crystal), Monica Rial (Dragon Ball Z Kai, Soul Eater), Todd Haberkorn (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, The Legend of Korra) and Greg Ayres (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Samurai 7). Guests will be available for autographs and photos with fans but in order to maximize everyone’s experience Anime Boston has laid out a set of guidelines on their website.

Anime Boston additionally features an art track where artists sell commissions, manga, zines, and prints with Featured Artists who conduct panels and workshops. This year’s Featured Artists are Eric Proctor, Nightengale Needles, Kel McDonald, Trevor Mueller, and Rich Pellegrino.

As in past years, Anime Boston 2016 will present many popular events including a masquerade, an anime music video contest, video programming rooms, an artists’ alley and art show, karaoke, game shows, video games, manga library, formal and informal dances, and much more. Dealers’ room will be located in the cavernous Halls A and B of the Hynes Convention Center selling manga, anime DVDs, t-shirts, prints, and collectibles.

About Anime Boston:
Anime Boston is an annual three-day Japanese animation convention held in Boston, Mass. Anime Boston 2016 is scheduled for Friday, March 25 through Sunday, March 27 at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel. More information about Anime Boston can be found at www.animeboston.com.

About New England Anime Society:
The New England Anime Society was founded in 2001. Based in Massachusetts, The New England Anime Society, Inc. is parent organization of Anime Boston and is dedicated to furthering public education and understanding of the Japanese language and culture through visual and written media. More information about The New England Anime Society is available at www.neanime.org.

Emerald City Comicon (ECCC) is the premier comic book & pop culture convention in the Pacific Northwest. Join us April 7-10, 2016. For tickets and more information please go to the website: www.emeraldcitycomicon.com

Anime Boston has announced their first three guests for the 2014 convention! From the English-language production of Sailor Moon, Linda Ballantyne (Serena/Sailor Moon), Toby Proctor (Darien/Tuxedo Mask), and director John Stocker will appear as the Guests of Honor to meet their fans and participate in panels. More information about each guest below:

Linda Ballantyne (Voice Actress)

For the past 20 years, Linda Ballantyne has worked professionally on stage, screen and television, and has been heard in hundreds of radio and television commercials worldwide. Her extensive animation career consists of a wide variety of characters including series leads in Sailor Moon as Sailor Moon/Serena, Mia and Me as Queen Mayla, My Big Big Friend as Lilly’s Mom, The Avengers as Wasp, Toot and Puddle as Tulip and Will, Air Master as Kaori Sakiyama, Bakugan as Kararina and Beywheelz as Leader B/Lucy. She has also appeared in Meteor, Cyberchase, Mischief City, Corduroy, Timothy Goes to School, and Animal Shelf. She has also voiced characters in the feature films Disney’s Lucky Ducks, Care Bear’s Journey to Joke-A-Lot, Care Bear’s Big Wish Movie and Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Ballantyne was contracted as the ‘voice’ of the Comedy Network for 13 years and is currently creating and writing an animated series entitled Simply Wicked. She is also the host of the edgy new radio show I’m Just Sayin’ on Canada Talks (#167), SiriusXM’s newest channel.

Toby Proctor (Voice Actor)

Toby Proctor has been involved in the entertainment industry for over 30 years. He started on stage at the age of 8, playing the lead role of Litle Lord Fauntleroy at the Confederation Centre for the Performing Arts in Prince Edward Island. He then moved onto performing in many Canadian series as a guest star, as well as U.S. features.
Mostly notably, he voiced the character Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon and Flash in the Flash Gordon animated series.

John Stocker (Voice Actor/Director)

For over four decades, John Stocker has been a recognized force in the acting industry. He began his career as an on-camera performer, working with the likes of John Candy, Dan Ackroyd, Rick Moranis, Gilda Radner, William Shatner and Mark Wahlberg, before settling solely, but comfortably into the off-camera world, where he has voiced many thousands of commercials and hundreds of animated characters. His classic roles include Beastly in Care Bears, Longarm in COPS, Toad in Super Mario Brothers, Newton Gimmick in Teddy Ruxpin, Creed in X-Men, Basil in Babar, Bugsy in Dog City and both Naga and King Zenoheld in Bakugan. Still busy today, Stocker is the voice of Mr. Owl in Franklin, Mission Control in Rob the Robot and Mayor Swift in Sidekick.

Over the years, Stocker diversified his career to include voice casting, voice coaching, demo production, and voice directing. He’s been at the helm for many dozens of productions, including Totally Spies, Caillou, Redakai, Mike the Knight, Beyblade, Medabots, Ella the Elephant and most importantly, Sailor Moon.

About Anime Boston:
Anime Boston is an annual three-day Japanese animation convention held in Boston, Mass. Anime Boston 2014 is scheduled for Friday, March 21 through Sunday, March 23 at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel. More information about Anime Boston can be found at http://www.animeboston.com.

About New England Anime Society:
The New England Anime Society was founded in 2001. Based in Massachusetts, The New England Anime Society, Inc. is an organization dedicated to furthering public education and understanding of the Japanese language and culture through visual and written media. More information about The New England Anime Society is available at http://www.neanime.org.